Dun & Bradstreet Hit with Class Action Over Alleged Use of Californians’ Info to Promote D&B Hoovers Database

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A proposed class action alleges sales intelligence solutions company Dun & Bradstreet has illegally misappropriated the identities of California residents to advertise subscriptions to its D&B Hoovers database. 

The 20-page lawsuit says that the business-to-business company advertises and promotes subscriptions to the D&B Hoover database, a tool used primarily by salespeople and marketers, by publicly displaying the names, contact information, job titles, places of employment and other details of “tens of millions of Californians” without consent to do so.  

According to the complaint, a subscription to the D&B Hoovers sales database costs upward of $10,000 per year, and the information found therein is used to send personalized sales and marketing communications. Neither the plaintiff nor other proposed class members used the D&B website, much less provided Dun & Bradstreet with their names, contact information, professional histories or any other identifying specifics, the case alleges. California consumers also never consented to the defendant selling access to their personal information as part of the D&B Hoovers product, the suit adds. 

With regard to the plaintiff, an Antioch, California resident, the case says Dun & Bradstreet has in its database a profile accurately displaying her name, job title, place of work and phone number. Moreover, a second version of the woman’s D&B profile includes the identities of her work colleagues and “triggers,” events in the woman’s life that “D&B Hoovers believes ‘represent selling opportunities,’” the complaint says. 

The lawsuit asserts that the plaintiff does not know how the defendant obtained her personal and professional information. 

The lawsuit states that California law recognizes the intellectual property and privacy rights of California citizens with regard to control over their own names and personas for commercial purposes. According to the complaint, Dun & Bradstreet has violated these intellectual property and privacy rights and unlawfully profited from consumers’ identifying information. 

The suit looks to cover all current and former California residents who are not subscribers of Dun & Bradstreet and whose names and personal information the company incorporated in profiles used to promote paid subscriptions. 

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